Who Started Gaza Conflict? Well, the U.S. Says…

Who started the latest round of violence in the Middle East? This pretty remarkable exchange between the host and a reporter on CNN‘s Piers Morgan Tonight show (11/15/12) tells us that no one can really say for sure, but the U.S government will tell you what they think:

MORGAN: Like with all these things in that region, apportioning blame from afar is a very precarious business because each side blames the other for the reasons leading up to these incidents.

What is your sense of how this is playing out in the international stage?

FRED PLEITGEN: It’s very difficult to assess who’s at fault for this. You’re absolutely right. I mean, one of the things that is almost obsolete is to try to lay blame on anyone or to say who actually started any of this.

But it certainly seems to be the case that, of course, the United States is saying that all of this is square on the shoulders of Hamas, because of the escalations that have been happening from Gaza, especially the rocket attacks, but also attacks with anti-tank weapons on Israeli patrols in the past couple of weeks that have been ratcheted up.

If a reporter can’t answer that question with anything but “Here’s what the United States is saying,” it might be be easier to get a government spokesperson to do just that.

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Activism Director and and Co-producer of CounterSpinPeter Hart is the activism director at FAIR. He writes for FAIR's magazine Extra! and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR's syndicated radio show CounterSpin. He is the author of The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly (Seven Stories Press, 2003). Hart has been interviewed by a number of media outlets, including NBC Nightly News, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Associated Press. He has also appeared on Showtime and in the movie Outfoxed. Follow Peter on Twitter at @peterfhart.

we should ask this question why the bombing now? Is clear to every one that after the failure of Natayahu shame of support to Romney and the loss in the election, he has decided to shift the world attention to terrorism. How do we justified the bombing of innocent palestine citizen in a gazeling populated area like Gaza. This act must be condemned by everyone. Enough is enough of this state terrorism

On Nov 8, Israeli soldiers in Gaza killed a 13yr old boy who was playing football. There was no provocation and little publicity.
On Nov 10, 2 teenage boys in Gaza were killed by Israeli soldiers.
So the rockets into Israel increased and we now have an escalation of this ongoing conflict.

In response to Merrylib’s comment that “There was no provocation and little publicity”, I did a Google search and found at least twenty news reports. As far as “without provocation” goes, here’s a quote from one of the news report by Brett Wilkins in digitaljournal: “Israeli troops exchanging gunfire with Palestinian resistance fighters along the border with the Gaza Strip shot and killed a Palestinian child as he played soccer.”
Reuters reports that fighters from the Popular Resistance Committee (PRC), a militant group resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestine, admitted that its gunmen attacked a group of four Israeli tanks and an armored bulldozer as they made a short cross-border incursion into Gaza near Khan Younis.
“Terrorists opened fire at IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers while they were performing routine activity adjacent to the security fence,” an Israeli military spokeswoman told Reuters in Jerusalem. IDF troops responded by returning fire toward “suspicious locations,” another IDF official said.

Let’s not gloss over the words “cross border”, and “incursion” in favor of the word “short”, when dealing with the actions of a group with the word “resistance” in the name. Israel is, and has been enacting a reign of state terror that you yourself would never stand for if the word “Palestinian” was spelled “A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N”.

You have to look back at history, it is easy to know who started it, by just waiting to see who benefits from all this. Any time the Palestinians fight the Israelis, Palestinians have a lot to lose and Israel gains support, Israel occupying Gaza among all of Palestine. Gaza is Egypt not Palestine, Occupation been going on for 60 years, UN are wimps, NATO are not fair, you have at least 8 super power nations against the weak oppressed Palestinians,
Off course they will find a way to defend their last shelter and their kids, they are at their last breath. We are not human, we lost our humanity we support apartheid, no one on earth lived the life the Palestinians are living since 1948, for 2000 years Palestine was peaceful, when England and the US brought the Jews from Germany, then from Russia, Africa, Poland and may other places, started kicking Palestinians out of their homes that their Grand Grand Grand….. parents lived, and create Israel, Wars started. Since Super Powers like Wars and sell arms and enjoy an Evil mind, we will always have conflicts around the world, and in Palestine, all you have to do is call the Palestinians Terrorists,
Voilà, you got your excuse and support from around the world, even if you kill Palestinian Christians, I am Christian, but not stuck up with my religion, but I know all you out their that call yourselves Christians and support Israel actions of takings peoples land and then killing what is left of them, you are crucifying Jesus again, I can’t believe in this time and Age, people have hate to one another and think they are different or chosen, no one race is better than any other. Call yourselves Christians but don’t do any thing Jesus taught you. You can’t find one leader or a Christian person on earth any more that would turn the other cheek. And who think that God is going to save them and the rest would blow up with the earth, I say to you, you are dead wrong, Who digs a hole for his brother to fall in, will fall in it himself.

I marvel at your ability to see Israelis as people and Palestinians as less than people. The Israelis can do no wrong and Palestinians can’t do right by the Israelis unless they die or move away. Well sooner of later Gaza will be leveled then bulldozed to become part of Israel and will disappear off of maps in the area. Contain, starve, assault, press then remove. It may take decades for them to finish their project. (These are the fanatical Zionists and Nationalists behind this not every Israeli.) A war with Iran would make it go faster. Such an attack would keep prying eyes away from such infamy should they manage to start World War III.

Nightgaunt…..Israel has no policy to eradicate Arabs.They have always wanted peace.Do you believe it was their fault they were attacked during the yom kip war for instance? Or any of the other wars that have been so tragic for the Palestinians in the result.My point is they could if they had wanted to.They did not.I do not believe Israel wants to kill as many civilian Arabs as they can.Nothing…Nothing proves that.The other side on the other hand i believes wants to maximize civilian deaths.I dont even know if they ever have tried to hide the fact.Forget the arguments.Israel will win this military engagement.And Gaza hopes will slip further away.Isn’t insanity doing the same thing over and over and hoping for a different result?Attack Israel from land…. and you risk loosing that land in a military operation.How stupid are these people?Be pragmatic for Christ’s sake.

Michael, you are correct, the whole thing is stupid. The rockets have no real military value, and once in a while some peace loving person gets hurt by them. It reminds me of how a baboon establishes his place in the troop’s pecking order. First an insult and then some sort of a fight.

I’m tired of hearing “killing innocent Muslims ” there are Muslims in Jerusalem and innocent Israelites too are dying from this conflict ! Where is your so called voice of concern about them ?
people die in war, bombs are not religion specific. Lets get rid of the sentiments and not make this about religion

Gazan terrorists lobbing rockets into residential neighborhoods are responsible for the terror and death they cause. Israel blockading and embargoing and assassinating and bombing and shelling and invading are responsible for the terror and death they cause. Look at the death tool and the level of each side and judge whose responsibility is greater.

Tishado There is nothing short of Israelis laying down and allowing their throats to be slit that would bring you to stand in their corner.And truthfully I think you would say on some level they deserved it.

Sol Im not sure what you are saying.Is that a valid reason after being fired on to return fire?I believe so.A while back it was reported that an Israeli plane killed a family of seven.The other side of the story was 3 men were firing rockets from a building roof for 3 days.As they were firing- a bomb killed them all.And a family in the floor below ……though the building was thought empty.Cowards..idiots.Just read a book on German infantry units in the final battle for Berlin.They moved out into the outer defensive circles to try to save the population from the artlllery,planes,tanks,infantry.meeting on the field of battle to give battle.Little different from OBL’s last moments, or Hamas who fights from behind the population.Move out from the population centers and far less innocents will die.As if they care

[…] stand on no side at all — it is critical to view all media reports coming out of the region with a healthy dose of skepticism, even when they are published by seemingly trusted sources like CNN or The New York […]